A Dick Staub Interview (Segment 2 of 4) with John De Graaf, the producer of a PBS series and companion book titled, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, joins us to talk about this widespread disease, which can be described as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more." De Graaf, discusses some of the symptoms: shopping fever (mall mania), credit card debt, bankruptcies, greed and envy, homes congested with stuff, a shortage of time, declining savings, an overload of possessions, consumeritus among kids (especially teens) and an ache for meaning. A fascinating and sobering discussion and wake up call.
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It’s interesting that we have now surpassed the Japanese in our ‘devotion’ to worktime, and yet you suggest that Americans would justify that as a valid part of our cultural work ethic. Maybe so, but I think that if you tracked the topic back a few decades you’d discover that the Japanese over-devotion to work had once been subject to wonderment in this country. We used to shake our heads at those ‘crazy Japs’ who were actually known to die from overwork.
Just another instance of how our values are created by what we do, instead of the other way around.
Reminds me of the old saying…”we are human beings not human doings!”
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